Interview Log with Jarkko Oikarinen
Undernet Public Relations Committee
http://www.pr-com.undernet.org/http://www.mirc.co.uk/help/jarkko2.txtWelcome to the Undernet Public Relations Committee's Live Events Interview Auditorium.
We have a very special guest tonight, Jarkko Oikarinen. Jarkko Oikarinen is known as
the creator of IRC as he developed and tested it in 1988. Jarkko has been kind enough
to take this time out of his busy schedule to be with us tonight. As most of you already
know, the Undernet Public Relations Interview Staff sent out many invitations for users
to send in their questions to be asked during the interview. The best and most appealing
25 questions have been selected carefully by the staff. We will ask one question, wait
for an answer from Jarkko, and then proceed with the next. We will now begin the interview
session. Sit back, relax, and get ready for an exciting hour.
(1) You haven't been seen or heard from much
in half a decade but have now decided to appear
in this online conference. Is there any specific
reason for the time chosen? Does it have anything
to do with Microsoft's intents to enter the IRC
scene? -- Donwulff
There is no specific reason for this time, except that during
1993-1996 I was working abroad (Sweden and France), not spending much
time on IRC or in Internet in general. I just happen to be a little bit
more around now than before.
(2) Did you come up with IRC just because you were
frustrated by the limitations of talk, or were
there other reasons? -- Kev
I believe that IRC came up because there was a clear need
for it. It was not to replace talk.. the purpose of talk is different.
The original purpose of IRC was more like to provide
similar features that existed on BITNET and DECNET, ie.
bitnet chat system and the DECNET phone.
(3) Why do you think people are attracted to IRC? -- Tsu
What makes IRC special is the sense of anonymity. The only things that
you often know of the other person, are those that you can conclude
from the discussions.
(4) When you created IRC, what was the maximum number of
users at the same time that you made allowance for? -- Run
It was not that well planned, but perhaps somewhere around 100 users.
(5) The protocol is now being used on networks with approximately 20,000
simultaneous connections. If you knew then what you know now, would you
have restructured ircd differently? -- Kev
Of course... the structure of the world wide web is much more
scalable than IRC. I believe IRC will integrate into the web.. or at least
the functionality of IRC, it has already started to happen. Having the IRC
channels being listed on web pages would allow each channel to have it's own
well routing small net.
(6) How long did it take originally to code the source for ircd? -- NudeDude
The first versions which were tested within Finland were coded in maybe 3-4
months, with help from several other people in Finland.
(7) A lot of clients are introducing features such as color and sound on a
client level that are not RFC-compliant. Do you think these sorts of commands
should be at server level? -- saad
No, I think they belong to the client level. There is no need for the
server to interpret the data people send to each other. There should, however,
be some well-defined standards for this so that the clients will be compatible
with each other.
(8) The original IRC RFC, RFC1459, relies on the rather questionable
authentication method of sending passwords in the clear. Knowing what
you know now, would you have done this differently by perhaps using
some form of cryptography? -- Kev
Not necessarily.. Naturally it is better to encrypt passwords, but if that
would have meant several manmonths more work, I would have skipped it.
In fact encrypting all irc messages, including conversations was considered
at some point. My reason for not doing it was the amount of work and knowledge
that is needed to implement good cryptography routines. -oo-
(9) Have you heard about the new Microsoft RFC? and if so, what do you
think of it? -- }{obbes
... Humm... that's a tricky question :-) I am not familiar with the
Microsoft RFC, so I do not have a strong opinion on that as such. I
have some thoughts about Internet standards, and they may or may not
apply to this... I believe that Internet standards should be designed
by a consortium of Internet users (or possibly by many companies), not
by any single company alone (ie. dictated). The problem with a company
making a standard usually is that nobody else will be able to conform
to the 'standard', thus limiting free trade and free competition... it
is a little like companies making the laws in internet instead of
representatives elected by people.. -o-
